Weak Regulation, Sweet Kental Advertising Still Threatens The Health Of Indonesian Children

Illustration - Sweet condensed milk. BETWEEN

JAKARTA - Weak regulations regarding strong and sweet advertisements that threaten the health of children in Indonesia, continue to be highlighted by activists in the field of public health.

Strong, sweet ads are often perceived by the public as milk, which is one of UNICEF's highlights in the Child Nutrition Report 2025 report which reviews the increase in children's exposure to advertisements for food and high sugar drinks that are marketed aggressively.

Related to this, Project Lead for Food Policy, Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI) Nida Adzilah Auliani in a statement in Jakarta, Saturday said advertising regulations in Indonesia were still weak in protecting children from exposure to unhealthy food and beverage promotions.

"Currently, advertising regulations in Indonesia are still ineffective, especially in protecting consumers from misleading disinformation and marketing practices. Especially with digital channels, including social media, strengthening unhealthy marketing influences," Nida said, quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, October 11.

Nida said that sweet condensed advertisements have become a public concern since a number of cases of malnutrition in children were found caused by condensed consumption since an early age. In fact, a number of victims have been consuming as a substitute for breast milk since the age of 3 months.

Therefore, as of October 2018, the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) began to emphasize that thick sugar is not a drink for sources of nutrition and is prohibited from being used as a substitute for breast milk, which is regulated through the BPOM Regulation No. 31 of 2018 concerning Food Label Process.

However, the impact of the advertisement is still felt today, because people still think of condensed milk as a milk drink for children.

Therefore, Nida assessed that the supervision of advertising and distribution of products cannot be underestimated.

Furthermore, he hopes that the government can make a comprehensive food policy. Starting from labeling to marketing products that are easily accessible to children.

"This policy must include evidence-based front packaging labels, restrictions on marketing unhealthy products, and a healthy food environment in schools," said Nida.

In line with that, researcher from Batam International University (UIB) Rahmi Ayunda said the existence of a very crowded digital space has made the promotion and advertisement of ultra-processed food so close to the community.

He revealed that the Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers (APJII) in 2024 recorded 221.6 million internet users (about 79.5 percent of the population), and 9.2 percent of them children under 12 years old.

"This means that millions of children spend time on the information highway, where promotions combine with entertainment. Ads do not always appear as advertisements; they can be in the form of funny challenges, honest reviews, or favorite characters that suggest sweet snacks. This is where the legal aspect becomes crucial, children do not yet have the cognitive capacity to distinguish between entertainment and what are the invitations to buy, so they are entitled to special protection from fraudulent promotional practices," said Rahmi Ayunda.